this post was submitted on 15 Sep 2023
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Can someone help me understand? Maybe my understanding of contracts is too simple but in this example:
I've developed and published a unity game. The game is complete and will receive no future updates from me, but will remain on sale for the foreseeable future.
My understanding of the current situation is that unity is somehow claiming these new terms will apply to my game. But I don't see how that's feasible. Shouldn't my relationship with unity be at an end as the product was completed? Would I have to de-list my completed game to avoid charges? How is that legal?
That's the sticking point. A game could be complete, and receiving no material updates, but still need to be "updated". Sometimes the app stores require a re-compile and you will be bound by the new terms.
In the worst cases, a highly played but low earning game (like Flappy Bird) requires a recompile to update the minimum API level it supports in the Google play store. There are no gameplay changes what-so-ever. If you don't re-compile and update it, Google will de-list the game. But you also can't submit the update unless you accept the new terms.
Well... I look forward to using Unity's replacement...
Godot
All this talk about development has made me want to dip my toes into it. Is there anywhere you can download free to use art and models? Is there somewhere I should start reading before just jumping in. (Trying to RTFMS before building I guess)
Honestly, just jump in and start making something, either following a tutorial and/or referencing the docs as you go. As for free assets, maybe try the creative commons website? Just make sure to adhere to the terms of any license that you use.
Is there an easy thing to start with? I was thinking of doing something solitaire or tetris related to start with, just because I assume there is tons of guides and stuff to copy for something that old and ubiquitous. While I can still heavily edit the appearance and other aspects of the game.
So is this something that all companies deal with? For example:
If Google builds an app with an embedded library that costs a license fee, and the company that offered that license decides to raise is price by 10x for future versions and they only give 3 months warning. Now my app has to go without security updates or suddenly be subject to extreme charges. But I don't have enough time to completely rewrite my app either.
I find it hard to believe companies would leave this sort of thing up to chance. If AWS suddenly decided to 100x it's price structure would that actually fly legally? If so, why don't they?
Unity has had over a decade to establish itself as the main game engine. They have passed the growth phase and are now in the exploitation phase.
AWS and Azure are currently in the growth phase. They charge more for worse performance than self hosting and traditional third party hosting, but it's close enough execs on the hype train are switching as fast as possible so as not to be left behind by their peers. Once they have destroyed traditional hosting options, they will absolutely move into the exploitation phase and pull this same move, and the ramifications will be much greater than just gaming.